Criminals pose as health officials to trick virus victims
‘Opportunities for criminals’
CRIMINALS have been posing as health officials online to extract personal details from victims amid the coronavirus crisis, National Crime Agency chiefs have warned.
Gangs will exploit the outbreak to commit fraud and steal financial information, a spokesman for the NCA said.
He added that school closures will also leave children vulnerable to online predators.
And stretched police forces, expected to enforce pub and restaurant closures, will have to prioritise crimes as they turn to 10,000 volunteer special constables for assistance, a senior officer said.
The warnings come after a man from West Sussex appeared in court charged with making fake kits claiming to treat Covid-19.
NCA investigators have already come across Covid-19themed malicious apps and websites designed to steal personal and financial information. The NCA said: ‘The Covid-19 outbreak may provide opportunities for criminals, and we are monitoring intelligence and crime trends to ensure that we can react as needed.’
National Police Chiefs Council chairman Martin Hewitt said that if too many officers are ill or self-isolating then they could be supported by the Army.
He told Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday: ‘We have written out in the last week to over 10,000 special constables around the country who volunteer to help, about how they can assist.
‘As our resources become more stretched, we have to prioritise those things that are the most likely to cause harm.’
The comments come after reports of yobs coughing and spitting at emergency workers in West Yorkshire while they dealt with a serious incident on Saturday night. PC Rachel Story and PC Charlotte Nicholls both said they had to wash spit from their boots.
The NCA said that despite travel restrictions affecting the volume of traffic at UK borders, drug and people smugglers continue to operate.
Last week half a tonne (500kg) of cocaine was seized at Dover, and German national Kawus Rafiei, 56, was charged with importing drugs.
People-smugglers are telling migrants the UK is safer than the Continent to drive up demand, NCA intelligence suggests. The crime agency said the Thinkuknow website gives safety advice for young people.
In West Sussex, Frank Ludlow, 59, was arrested allegedly in the act of selling fake testing kits from a post office near his home on Friday, after US customs officers in Los Angeles intercepted a package on Wednesday containing 60 fake kits sent from the UK, labelled ‘antipathogenic treatment.’
Ludlow, who appeared at Brighton Magistrates’ Court on Saturday, was allegedly planning to distribute 60 more fake kits. Detective Chief Superintendent Clinton Blackburn said: ‘While police have taken swift action to arrest this individual, we believe some of these kits may still be in circulation.’
Tariq Sarwar, of the Medical and Health Products Regulatory Agency, said: ‘When buying online, beware of illegitimate websites, suspicious URLs and remember that claims like “100 per cent safe, or “quick results”, are often warning signs.